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“S.S. Tandjong Pinang” Researched Passenger and Crew List

- Ship sunk by Japanese warship on 17 February 1942 [Version 6.3.0; January 2020]

Preface: This list has been compiled as a memorial and out of respect to the women, children and men who lost their lives in the sinking of the “SS. Tandjong Pinang” as the result of a cruel and callous attack by either a Japanese submarine (according to the testimony of a crew member who survived) or a torpedo boat, or warship during the night of 17 February 1942. This very little ship (a 97-foot converted cargo and passenger vessel which had been previously plying trade on the Singapore Straits to Rhio Archipelago service) was trying to make its escape with about 180 women and children, plus about eight wounded men, from uninhabited Pom Pong Island in the Indonesian Archipelago where they had been shipwrecked and also had on board five ocean shipwreck survivors (who had been plucked from the sea by the “Tandjong Pinang” on the day before). Almost all these people were survivors, including many wounded, of an earlier sinking of the Singapore evacuation ship “SS. Kuala” by Japanese bombers at Pom Pong Island. One survivor, Able Seaman Richardson, poignantly states that the “Tandjong Pinang” picked up from Pom Pong Island ”… 130 women, plus 30 children including six babes in arms and an old man…”; Captain Briggs of the “Tien Kwang” which had also been sunk at Pom Pong Island recorded that 175 people went on board the “TP” “…mainly wounded, women and children, all stretcher cases…”; another survivor , Mrs. Molly Watts – Carter later wrote in Palembang internment camp, where she died just before the end of the War, that 150 women and children were boarded from Pom Pong Island; finally survivor Able Seaman Robert Archer estimated that there were 200 women and children on board. There appear to have been 17 officers and crew on board the “SS. Tandjong Pinang”. Who was actually on board that day has been at best a partial picture since the Second World War and at worst a tragic and clouded mystery. Only a few days earlier and just prior to the Surrender of Singapore, at just after midnight on the 14 February, the ship had been the tail end of a large (and in fact the last) convoy of evacuation vessels from Singapore and on that voyage, it had evacuated servicemen,” … about 170 soldiers of RAMC and RAOC on board. We also carried two doctors …” (A/S J. Richardson narrative) including a small team from the leading-edge radar unit 24 AMES under the command of Sqdn Leader Thomas C. ‘Toby’ Carter. These men had been waiting in Singapore harbour on a launch named “Shu Kwang” and had then been picked up at 0645 hrs. on Saturday 14 February by the “Tandjong Pinang” - when the “Shu Kwang’ was sinking after being bombed. This group, along with a complement of nurses and Army personnel were taken to safety at Tembilihan on the eastern shores of Sumatra. There was also one woman who had had her legs blown off who was taken aboard from the ‘Shu Kwang’. Evidently the ship was somewhat damaged (according to a poem written by Toby Carter) by the time it reached Sumatra.

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The ship was under the command of three New Zealand Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officers – Lieutenants Basil Shaw, Geoffrey Studholme and Stephen Gerard. Basil Shaw was ex Royal Navy and then a successful farmer in New Zealand and Stephen Gerard was an adventurer and a man of high intellect, a Canterbury College (now Canterbury University) graduate and he had attended Oxford University. Gerard was also one of New Zealand’s most experienced off shore yachtsmen. All were married men with life experience and more than enough knowledge and initiative to handle a small ship such as the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang ‘ – as demonstrated in the initial escape voyage from Singapore.

Basil Shaw After reaching Tembilihan it then travelled upriver to the town of Rengat on Sunday, 15 February, landing all the passengers and of the Stokers who was suffering from an old wound (Richardson). Soon messages reached Rengat telling of the fate of the “SS. Kuala”, sunk at Pom Pong Island with hundreds of women and children survivors and requesting urgent assistance. Lt. Terry, RN, ( who had been sunk on the ‘Kung Wo’) then ordered the ‘Tanjong Pinang’ to go back to Pom Pong island and take off the women and children only – the ship was not to return to Rengat but instead make for Batavia. Immediately responding, the ‘Tanjong pinang’ left Rengat at 0430 hrs. on Monday 16 February, and on its way to Pom Pong Island, the ship then in the account of A/Leading Seaman Richardson “… picked up a Marine [researcher note - he would have been a Royal Marine] and a civilian man from a Carley float. We took the float onboard as we had only two small boats, a pram dinghy and a few small wooden rafts. Within the hour we picked up three more men from a wooden platform, a European sailor, a Malay sailor and a badly wounded RAF man. I do not know what ships they were from…”

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The ship soon reached the uninhabited island of Pom Pong at 2200 hrs. on the 16 February where the survivors of the ‘SS Kuala’ were desperately waiting for rescue. That night 150 - 208 (depending on which testimony is used) mainly women and children passengers plus a few walking wounded men - and stretcher cases - had walked or been helped down the steep jungle clad hills of uninhabited Pom Pong Island to the red pebble beach, waded into the sea in the dark, were lifted into two small rowing boats and then crammed onto the deck (and into the hold) of the very small coastal ship, notably only 97 foot in length, in the dark of the night of 16 February 1942. Mr. J.F. Walker in a statement to the Malayan Research Bureau recorded “… On the Tanjong Pinang there were many stretcher cases and all the women and children left on Pom Pong Island … “. A/S Richardson then tells us that “… We lowered out two boats and, with the soldiers in their two boats, brought off eight boatloads of women and children. The average number in each boat was twenty, but the last boat brought off only twelve …. We had to put our passengers down the hold, on the main deck and on the boat deck. They were very crowded.”. Because the Island channel through which the ship had to pass was full of rocks and deemed too risky to navigate in the dark, the ship did not leave from Pom Pong Island until dawn on the 17 February. One crew man said that a ‘lifeboat’ ( these appear to have been more like rowing boats) came from the beach eight times with 20 people on board each time – except for the last trip when it only had 12 people in the lifeboat. Another crewman said there were 250 passengers on board. These people had already undergone extreme shock, horror, pain and privation during the bombing and sinking of the “SS. Kuala” and then being shipwrecked and starved on uninhabited Pom Pong Island only a few days before, so their strength and morale would have been greatly sapped by the time they boarded the “SS. Tandjong Pinang”.

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After steaming all day, the ship was stopped at sea - approximately 30 miles north of the Tanjung Ular lighthouse (i.e. off the north-west coast of the large Indonesian island named Banka Island off the east coast of Sumatra) that evening of the 17 February at around 2030/2130 hrs. by a warning shot across its bows and a bluish searchlight being trained upon it. Then, whilst some women and children were being lowered in the ship’s only two small row boats (there were no real lifeboats), the Japanese warship (possibly a destroyer but variously recorded as a submarine or torpedo boat) opened fire at point blank range whilst its searchlights were trained on the “Tandjong Pinang”, directly hitting the starboard side ship’s boat which was being lowered full of women and children, and setting the ship on fire. The reference to a Japanese submarine (according to crew testimony), is surprising since no Japanese submarines are known to have been in the area at the time, but this reference to a submarine is confirmed by A/S Archer and most interestingly Mrs. Molly Watts- Carter states in her testimony that whilst floating in the sea the day after the sinking “… During the afternoon we sighted and hailed a submarine which ignored us and quietly disappeared …”. The scene is best described by the words of A/Leading Seaman Richardson, “… I was at the wheel at 2130 on 17.2.42 when a shot was fired across our bow to stop us and then a blueish searchlight was put on us. We stopped our engines. The Captain with the Aldis Lamp and the signalman with a torch tried to signal that we had women and children on board. I heard the Captain say that it was a submarine that had stopped us (more likely to be a torpedo boat) but I did not see the craft at any time. The Japanese were using a searchlight with a narrow beam which they kept shifting onto our white Ensign. The signalman [this was Signalman Daniel Brendan McHugh, RNZN] requested permission to take down tour Ensign, but the Captain told him to keep on signaling. In the meantime women and children were being put into two small boats. The boats were being lowered down when the searchlights were switched off and the enemy opened fire. The first round was a hit which struck the starboard boat and the ship’s hull. I did not see what happened to the occupants of the boat. The First Lieutenant [this was Lt. Geoffrey Studholme, RNZVNR] was killed by this shell and the ship was set on fire. The enemy fired six rounds all of which struck the Tandjong Pinang amidships …”. Molly Watts – Carter (who survived to be captured and interned in Palembang where she died just prior to the end of the War) recorded whilst in captivity “… a searchlight was opened on us. We all took cover – I went to the opposite side of the ship from the light. Most of the nurses rushed into their cabins which received the first shell, killing about 20. As the [researcher – this appears to be the starboard lifeboat] lifeboat was being lowered I managed to scramble into it only to be thrown into the water a second later when another shell exploded near enough to shatter the lifeboat. The ship sank in five minutes…”. Another person who appears to have been in the ‘starboard’ lifeboat that was hit by a shell was a 20 year old nurse from Kuantan, Malaya, by the name of Miss Choong Kwee Cheo [possibly Miss Chuong Kwee Choo] who was featured in a wartime edition of the “Syonan Times “or “Domei” newspaper in Japanese occupied Singapore in an article titled “Shipwrecked Ipoh Girl returns Safely to Parents by Kindly Help of our Authorities”. She describes her experience as “… I managed to snatch a lifebelt in spite of receiving splinter wounds. Our ship was on fire and together with some other women we jumped into a lifeboat. The shelling continued with all fury and suddenly the lifeboat gave way throwing us all into the sea. People were swimming all round the ship and mattresses and rafts were thrown to us by the crew of the burning ship….”. A/Leading Seaman Richardson continues his account with the following heartbreaking description “… there were many casualties on deck and the people in the hold were trapped there… I helped to launch two of the small rafts. Mothers asked me to throw their children overboard into the sea, so that they could

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get on the rafts. I threw many children overboard and women too. The fire was very intense. I jumped overboard and clung to a mattress. I had no lifebelt. There were many women and children in the water. Two rafts were near us with many women clinging on to them. A man was on one raft holding three children and a small baby. The baby’s mother was in the water holding on to the raft. The mother died during the night, but the baby lived for two or three days. The Captain had been jumping overboard with children and putting them onto rafts; and then going back to the ship for more. He kept on doing this until the ship turned over and sunk. I think the ship sank in ten minutes after the first shot was fired…. During the night I saw the port boat; it was very low in the water; this may have been due to the damage or overcrowding, for it was very full of people and many more were in the water holding on to it…” Tragically there is no further mention of this ‘port boat’ in survivor accounts and it appears all clinging to that little ‘lifeboat’ perished. It is clear that the ship sank within five to ten minutes, inevitably taking down with it many of its women and children passengers who had been trapped or killed in the cargo hold and cabins. Out of (and this can only be a “guesstimate”) the 60 - 70 women, children, babies and men who might have managed to get off the ship, only about 15 adults and two teenagers are known to have reached land or been picked up at sea. For those who managed to leave the “Tandjong Pinang” the flotation devices were only four small rafts (initially with about 40 people both on them and hanging on to the edges at one stage), a pram dinghy, two ‘small boats’ plus a Carley raft. The survivors, who appear to have been only those who got onto the Carley floats and rafts, then, faced a cruel and tortuous fate with most dying at sea over the next week. Miss Choong/Chuong continues her account in the Japanese newspaper “… I managed to get hold of one of the rafts and pushed it towards the end of the ship, and it was just in time for the ship sank in 50 minutes [researcher - possibly she said 15 minutes to her interviewer], many going down with it. About six others climbed onto my raft. It was terribly cold. We were floating about all night shouting for help. Next morning one of the occupants died. For three days we drifted without food, water of sleep …” On the Carley float along with a few of the ship’s crew - Captain Basil Shaw, Abel Seamen Archer, Baird, Hissey and Young and a New Zealand Navy Signalman by the name of ‘McCue’[actually McHugh] - were “…seven Sisters altogether of which six died with tortuous exposure. Sister Black was the only Sister who survived until we landed on the beaches of Banka Island…” (Sources for this information are the A/B Baird letter of January 1946, plus a narrative by A/Leading Seaman Robert W. Archer who later died in a POW camp). A/Leading Seaman Richardson records that “… Wednesday 19th Feb; [researcher note – he seems to have the date wrong and appears to be referring to the 18th] at dawn we mustered only four rafts and the Carley float; with a total of only about forty people clinging to them. There seemed to be no other survivors. I saw the captain swimming in the water. Later in the morning we found the pram dinghy floating bottom up. We sighted it and the captain set off in it to find land. He returned a few hours later and said that he had seen land about eighteen miles away. He told us to follow him, but owing to the rough sea we could not keep up. We lost sight of him and the two other rafts. We did not see them again. We were now the Carley float and the two rafts tied together. The Carley float was in the lead with three men in it to tow the two rafts by paddling. Next came my raft with the signalman and myself, both of us were wounded; one of the signalman’s feet was hanging off. We could not paddle. Two nurses and the baby were on the other raft. The nurses were not wounded and they took turns in swimming behind the raft to push it along. The baby died on the third day. On the fourth day I was very ill and delirious; the nurses came onto my raft and attended to me. They were very good to me. None of us had had any food since leaving the ship. We depended on rainwater for

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drinking water. We caught the rain in our open mouths and in our hands. Our clothes were in tatters and we were badly burned by the sun. All of us had big sun blisters. About the fifth day we saw seagulls flying around and we smelt land. We decided it would be better to separate. The Carley float, towing the raft with the two nurses, set off. They were to send assistance to us as soon as they got ashore. We did not see them again. I was alone with the signal man. The signalman died that night. I was alone. I lost consciousness soon afterwards. The next thing I knew was when a Japanese sailor aroused me. A Japanese cruiser had sighted the raft and had come alongside. The sailor put a rope around me and I was hauled aboard and taken to the sick bay… I had been eight days on the raft…”. .]

[Researcher note: the ’signalman’ referred to is Signalman Daniel Brendan McHugh, # Sig 2397NZD, Royal New Zealand Navy, born in Ireland but who had grown up in Auckland, NZ. and who had been attached to the shore base “HMS Sultan” in Singapore. Regrettably the New Zealand Navy appeared to have lost track of Daniel in the chaos of the Surrender to the Japanese and most unfairly classified him as ‘Run’, when he was in fact carrying out his duties as a Naval Signalman to their fullest extent and participating as a serviceman to save the lives of women and children. It is hoped that this researched memorial document now sets the record straight. A/Leading Seaman Robert W. Archer P/JX 125705, who appears to have been on one of the other rafts in the original group, recorded the following as a POW in Sumatra before he died during the War “… at midday 18/19th we picked up the signalman, badly wounded in the foot and stomach, and about six nurses all on one raft. At about 1430 on the 17th A.B. Young and the Malay went with the Captain in a pram dinghy, which we had found. On the late afternoon of the 20th February we decided to leave A.B. Richardson and the signalman … at this time I had with me Baird, Hissey and five nurses, of whom three nurses were lost that afternoon. They were swimming and disappeared. One nurse died during the night of 20/21 Feb. We got ashore on a beach at the south end of Banka island at about 1800 22 Feb…” Molly Watts – Carter continues her account after the sinking as “ … soon found a two-man raft and later came across 10 other survivors with 4 small rafts, we tied together and hung on as best we could during the night. Next morning we decided to set a course north-west as we knew that there were a number of

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small islands in that direction… The other survivors in the party consisted of 5 Englishwomen, one Englishman, 3 Malay boys and one Chinese girl…. The following morning found half of our little band very distressed. During the afternoon the Englishman and woman went mad and slipped off the raft and disappeared. Towards evening we sighted land, but we had only our hands to propel as the paddles had been lost. I swam most of the time in an endeavor to steer. On the fourth day one of the half crazed Malays seized the Chinese girl, strangled her and threw her into the sea. Malay disappeared and an English nurse died from exposure and slipped off the raft. During the night I managed to catch a baby crab and shared it with the remainder, together with seaweed and a baby jellyfish…. Next morning we had dwindled to 5, land was much nearer and we paddled almost to it. Then a cross current caught us and swept us out to sea again…. In the late afternoon another girl and myself unhooked our raft and decided between us to try and push into the shore. Being a strong swimmer I soon had the raft pushing inshore again but my companion was too weak to assist. When only 100 yards from the shore another cross current swept us out to sea again. So we scrambled wearily onto the raft and exhausted fell asleep. …when daylight came a Japanese Cruiser appeared. I was sighted and a boat lowered, then placed me on a stretcher and took me on board. The Japanese treated me well and soon revived the flickering life left in me with food and brandy…”. Miss Choong/Chuong continues her story “ … On the afternoon of the third day there was a shower of rain and this was a godsend as we opened our mouths and drank the cool rain water. By the fourth day the other occupants died some purposely slipping into the water, while others died of hunger and exposure, until I was left with a Eurasian nurse. The next day an aeroplane flew low over us and though [we called] for help the pilot did not see or hear us. That night the Eurasian died and as she was dying she attempted to pull me into the sea, but I managed to resist. To my relief, after a short while I heard the voice of my friend a fellow nurse, calling to me. We managed to make our rafts drift together. Later we heard some other voices and this time it was another Eurasian girl and her brother [ researcher – this would appear to be Miss Gwendoline Smith and her ten year old brother Colin Clive Smith who have only been revealed during November 2012 as being survivors of this sinking. Family oral history recounts that they were sleeping in the hold of the ship , but feeling too hot had gone up on deck and so were on the deck and survived when thrown into the sea after the first shells struck]. We tied the two rafts together and on the fifth evening we saw a Nippon ship. We waved frantically and the captain put some aerated water bottles and biscuit tins in a pail and placed it in the sea. It was meant to float to us but the pail overturned and the food was lost. We were desperate and asked for more food, this time he tied more aerated water bottles and biscuit tins to a lifebelt and we managed to get it this time. We divided our rations and by evening our water was finished and though we wanted to eat the biscuits we could hardly open our mouths. The next day our rafts broke loose and the Eurasians drifted away. [Researcher – Miss Smith and Master Smith were later picked up by a Japanese warship and interned in Muntok and then Palembang. They were returned to Singapore in December 1942 and survived the war to later live in Singapore and the UK respectively]. I seemed to be dying at this stage and was in a delirium. At 8 o’clock the next morning we saw the shore of some island and several ships anchored nearby. We gradually drifted to one of these boats and were finally picked up by the Nippon soldiers…We were taken to a camp in Banka, where with some 500 others; we stayed there for about 20 days. We managed to get work at the hospital there but were anxious to get back home. Finally on 8th August arrangements were complete for me to go to Syonan. Again I found the Nippon-zin most helpful and considerate and to the utter joy of my parents I got home…”

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The other recording of these same events was by those on the two rafts tied together by survivor Margot Turner (who survived the sinkings, internment camps and the War to become a very senior Matron in the nursing service) and another QA. In the book “Women Beyond the Wire” by Lavinia Warner and John Sandilands there are two tragic and poignant paragraphs related by Margot Turner which probably summarizes most succinctly the truly awful reality of this cruel act by the Japanese Navy for those defenseless women, children, babies involved – it describes how these two nursing Sisters ;

“…swam about until they had brought sixteen people together, six of them children and two of them babies under one year.

By dawn two women had gone. The other sister, Beatrice Le Blanc Smith who had concealed a terrible wound, died in the afternoon and by the next dawn more had slipped away. On the second day, waterless under the blazing sun, the children went mad and one by one died.’ I examined each of them with great care before committing their small bodies to the sea,’ Margot has recorded. ‘The last one was a very small baby and it was difficult to know when it was dead. I thought: “This is some woman’s precious child; I must not let it go until I know it’s dead.” But in the end there was no doubt and it had to go with the others… “. Amongst those finally reaching land or picked up by passing Japanese ships were the ship’s Captain (Lt. Basil Shaw, NZRNVR), whose photo is above, plus between five and eight crew members, three European nurses, one civilian European woman, two Eurasian women (a nurse and a girl) and a young brother and sister - but Lt. Basil Shaw and Able Seaman Young died at the hands of the Japanese who murdered them on 21 February 1942 on Banka Island, one nurse died within a couple of days of reaching land and two crewmen, another nurse and the civilian died during internment. The tragic fact was that on Banka Island were two companies of the 229th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Army –who were the same troops who had, on Xmas Eve 1941 during the invasion of that city – raped and murdered the British and Chinese nurses of St Stephens College Hospital in addition to other atrocities. These same troops under the command of Captain Masaru Orita - who was in command of the invasion force on Banka Island after it landed on the island on 16 February - had been ordered to kill all survivors of Allied ships landing on the island. These same troops had already murdered 21 Australian Army Nurses and some 50 civilian men and servicemen - ships officers and ratings from the ‘SS Vyner Brooke’ and ORs from the British Army at Radji beach on 16 February, only a few days before Lt Basil Shaw and the others began to reach land on beaches close to ‘Radji Beach’ and Tandjong Ular lighthouse.

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Lighthouse at Tanjung Oelar/Ular circa .1930.

Reaching land proved cruel for many survivors and again Robert Archer records after landing on the beach at Banka Island “… we were robbed that night of all our money and possessions except clothes, by a party of about 20 Malays armed with poles and knives. We could get no medical help for the nurse, Miss Black, ex Alexandria Hospital. Her leg was badly poisoned. She died on the night 23/24 February. She had been engaged to an RAF officer. We buried her body on the beach about five miles north east of the village of Rambut. We lived in or near Rambut village for about seven weeks and were captured on 25th April. We were brought to Muntok and put in police charge….”. Knowledge of the fact that the ship had been sunk took a long time to be clarified amongst Allied forces and civilian authorities. Initially there was simply the assumption that it would have gone to Batavia and been captured. Rumours also swirled through Sumatra and back to Japanese occupied Singapore - there were a lot of men still travelling the escape route through the Indonesian Archipelago, up the Indragiri River and across the mountainous terrain of Sumatra and finally trickling in to Padang on the west coast of Sumatra taking with them snippets of information, speculation and rumour of the possible fate of their wives and families. Eventually some of these men were transferred as internees and POWs from Sumatra and Java during 1942 to the big POW and internment camps in Singapore. In Singapore the Bureau of Records and Enquiry had been established in Changi Military POW camp and they began to compile an investigation into the fate of the ship. Early rumour is exemplified in the record of Mr. J.F. Walker to the Malayan Research Bureau in Australia during 1942-43. Mr. Walker recorded that at the time of his escape on the “SS. Kuala” and then across Sumatra to Padang “… At the headquarters in the Dutch Club [at Padang] they had information that

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morning that the “SS. Tandjong Pinang” had not reached Java, but had been cruising around for a week, avoiding Japanese, and that they were expected in Padang that morning[ he appears to be referring to a date of about 22-26 February 1942] … “. Extremely intriguing is the record made by Mrs. Lupa Ruperti who made an invaluable record of people on the “SS. Kuala” and even more importantly, women and children who boarded the “SS. Tandjong Pinang”. This appears to have been compiled in India after she reached safety and in fact appears to be the source of what was for many years claimed to be a “Japanese broadcast’ providing a list of women and children in internment. This was strange from the start as there appears no way that the Japanese could have compiled such information from the few survivors who reached land at Banka Island – however it does seem to be explained as bureaucratic incompetence or an inept propaganda effort by British Authorities in Ceylon once they had Mrs. Ruperti’s list. Even more interesting is that in a post war interview of Mrs. Ruperti in Singapore it suggests that she that she actually had boarded the “SS. Tandjong Pinang” at Pom Pong island and had survived the sinking after being picked up by a passing vessel and reaching Padang and then India! This truly remarkable situation appears to have gone unnoticed by officialdom during and after the War – or either Mrs. Ruperti or the local newspaper was simply exaggerating the truth of her experiences. In many cases there appears to be no record of the deaths at the CWGC – it could be surmised that in some cases there were no family left to follow up the whereabouts of the missing person – in several instances it can be seen that where wives are listed as possibly lost in one of the sinkings there is the sad fact that there husband also lost his life as a POW. The “Tandjong Pinang” had been built in 1936 for Soon Bee Steamship Company (Singapore) Ltd., of Telok Ayer Street by the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Co., Hong Kong, to the designs of Messrs. Ritchie and Bisset, Consulting Engineers of Singapore. Powered by one or more Deutz Diesel engines she was capable of nine knots which was regarded as fast for this type of vessel in the 1930s. She was a very small ship to carry the 200 plus people from Pom Pong Island .She probably had cabin space for no more than ten or twelve people and appears, from a photo of the time in the “Straits Times” 23 September 1936 (the “Straits Times “archives) to have had a central hold for cargo – probably half those on board on the night of 17.2.42 would have been in the hold when the ship was attacked and sunk by the Japanese. A most evocative and sensitive record (TC) of the little ship in its final days is the excellent poem titled “Tandjong Pinang” written by Squadron Leader Toby Carter, 24 AMES radar unit (mentioned above as a passenger in the evacuation from Singapore), within days after he had travelled up the Indragiri River on the “SS Tandjong Pinang” and landed at Tembilihan in February 1942. The researcher of this document has found no more fitting tribute to the ship and its passengers on its final voyages with which to close this tragic narrative;

“Slowly she steamed up the wide river

scarcely making headway in the current; for the tide ebbed, and all its might was added to the muddy waters carried from the ever rain-soaked hills in the west. The roaring torrent of the Indragiri of the hills had flooded the wide Sumatran swamps, and lost its mighty violence, leaving near its mouth this steady strong persistent pull that caught the little ship, and carried her relentlessly, its weighty mass well-nigh impeding progress. Reedy mudbanks slowed her even more, and wattle fishing pagas caught her keel, denying

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haste, as though resenting this intrusion on their age-old privacy. Nothing larger than a sailing tongkang wooing the wind was their accustomed visitor; invasion by a ship of one hundred tons, seething up the mud, was something new; a thing the sober changeless Orient stomached ill.

She was old; her blunt unshapely hull, her rusty plates, bore evidence of this. But she was more than old: for she was torn, and blood had dyed the awning red that lay tattered in shreds along her deck. Her dummy smoke-stack everywhere was filled with jagged splinter-holes. Her one remaining sign of pride hung like a sodden sack, the one-time white and unfamiliar ensign at her stern. Her side was widely gashed, gaping where once had been a deckhouse, laying her inner privacies bare to the beating sun and the prying eyes of the motley crowd that pushed

its way to the waterside. She came alongside the little wooden wharf

Slowly, Like one who had fought bravely and long

And won: And men And women

Came ashore from her, quietly and grim, Slowly

Like they who had fought bravely and long And lost.

“SLEEP”

Their eyes said what their desiccated lips had left unspoken. None had slept a week, and round each eye a blazing scarlet rim told of the endless hours spent awake, silently watching and working, fighting time to win a minute more for work, to wrest a single second to retard the strong inevitable flow. But no: the tide was stronger; the advance came on relentlessly, its parapodia 1 pushing back what it could not digest. So they were pushed back. Working Waking Destroying Denying

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Watching Waiting Fighting Dying They were pushed back Back to the sea And into it. But some The sea itself would not swallow. These were they.”

Information herein has been recorded in its original form (with reference sources) in the interests of historical accuracy and therefore includes some contemporary wartime errors (which have been noted in italics where known). Note; in this list the people known to have survived the actual sinking of the “SS. Tandjong Pinang” are recorded in green font. This list identifies the majority (about 160) of the people on the “SS. Tandjong Pinang”, but obviously there could be up to 50 more people yet to be identified – if anyone has additions, deletions or corrections to this material would you please email Michael Pether on mncpether@gmail.com (postal address 2/23 Sanders Avenue, Takapuna, Auckland .0622.New Zealand., and Tel: 09-4865754) who will copy all the organisations and individuals using this document in websites etc., with the updates. Thank you.

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SOURCES: The researcher thanks Jonathan Moffat, the late John Brown, David Wingate (grandson of Mrs. Pen Landon, a passenger) and also Mr. Bill Shaw (son of Captain Basil Shaw and who supplied the photo of his father) for their assistance with information used in this memorial document. Other sources are; ALFSEA = list sent from ALFSEA to the Colonial Office post war of those they understood to be passengers on the “Kuala’ – this list may be unreliable insofar as including people who actually left on other ships such as the “HMS Grasshopper” or “Tien Kwang” ( questionable insertions are noted in italics). AUF = book “Angels under Fire” BMP = Personal recollections by (Nursing Sister) Mrs. Brenda Macduff BPPL – the pin point (microscopic writing) list on “Jeyes” toilet paper compiled by Jack Bennett in secret whilst an internee in Changi prison camp during 1942 with several thousand name and the last known information on these people after the Surrender of Singapore. Evans = report by Sister Margaret Evans, QAIMNS, in May 1942 in India with a list of QAIMNS and their known fate. Information was supported by Miss Bryant, a Sister in the T. A. N. S. (C….) = Changi Museum, Singapore website database of Civilians CAS = “Casualties at Sea’ file WO 361/462 in National Archives, Kew, UK. CWGC = Commonwealth War Graves Commission website – which contains 87 names of people who were killed in the bombing and sinking of the “SS. Kuala” IWMDM = Story of (Nursing Sister) Marjorie de Malmanche lodged at IWM IWMM = Story of Dr. Marjorie Lyon lodged at IWM IWM-S = Edith Stevenson diary lodged at IWM JPB = Japanese Propaganda Broadcast of list publicized in a 1943 edition of the Malayan Research Bureau bulletin of people ostensibly ‘captured’ on “SS. Tandjong Pinang” after it had picked up around 200- 208 survivors of the sinking of the “Kuala” from Pom Pong Island. This is recorded in the book “Singapore to Freedom” and in a Malayan Research Bureau bulletin in the Imperial War Museum. As can be seen from the correlation of names in the attached list, this has proven to be a very accurate list (they even have the first name of several of the people on board that the CWGC website lists only as an initial) of people on the “Tandjong Pinang” which is abbreviated to “TP” in the remainder of this document. A private letter (from someone in Survey Dept., Singapore) to the wife of Captain Shaw after the war questions whether this Japanese Broadcast ever happened and attributes it totally to a list compiled by survivors of the “SS. Kuala” sinking gathering names whilst on the beach at Pom Pong island after the “Tandjong Pinang” had left with its complement of women and children. The title “Japanese Propaganda Broadcast” has been left as the source name because of its historical occurrence in documents of the time. This is backed up by the finding during the compilation of this list that the JPB and the list under the name of Mrs. Ruperti are almost exactly the same including errors and matters of fine detail. It seems that what happened in fact was that the Malayan Bureau, GHQ. India chose to issue this list under the guise of it originating during a Japanese broadcast. At that time they would not have known the “Tandjong Pinang” had in fact been sunk. Moffatt = Jonathan Moffatt, author and historian MRB = Malayan Research Bureau bulletin MH = Mary Harris, COFEPOW website (confidential accounts given to Mary) MS = Margaret Shennan book “Out in the Midday Sun: The British in Malaya 1880-1960” MVDB = Malayan Volunteer database of John Brown MVG = Evacuees list on Malayan Volunteer Group Database

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NHN = Naval-History. Net, Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, World War Two, researched and compiled by Don Kindell. NIL = Ngiong Ing Low book “When Singapore was Syonan-to”. PBD = Nurse Phyllis Brigg’s diary PODC = Presumption of death certificates that were issued for people considered to have died on the “Kuala” Ruperti = list provided by Mrs. Luba Ruperti to Malayan Bureau in 1943 at PRO – however this list is not entirely accurate since she has people embarking on the “TP’ who actually escaped from Pm Pong Island STF = list in book “Singapore to Freedom” by Oswald Gilmour SIA = book “Sisters in Arms “ TC = Squadron Leader Thomas C. ‘Toby’ Carter. Toby Carter wrote Tanjong Pinang during the last days of February 1942 shortly after the small ship had helped to evacuate him and nine of his RAF men from Singapore. He was, at the time, a Squadron Leader and, at 24, the island’s senior radar officer. On Friday 13th February, Squadron Leader Carter boarded the “SS Shu Kuang” in Singapore harbour at 2220 hours. Around noon the next day the “Shu Kuang” was bombed and by 6.45pm the SS Tanjong Pinang had arrived alongside to pick up survivors. The poem, Tanjong Pinang, is written of those whom ‘the sea would not take’: Carter’s nine men, drawn mainly from 243 AMES, RAF, and those on the Shu Kuang and Tanjong Pinang with him, navy men, survivors of the sinking of the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse two months before, and the nurses, the army of the battles of Malaya. On February 15th the SS Tanjong Pinang docked at Tembilihan, eastern Sumatra; and Carter and his men crossed the island to the port of Padang, reaching the relative safety of Colombo on board the Australian cruiser, HMAS Hobart, on March 6th 1942. Toby Carter passed away in September 2014. Poem supplied by nephew Julian Ellis. Poem numbered references are;

1 The poet, a biologist in peacetime, likens the Japanese advance down the narrow peninsula of Malaya to the movements of a species of multi-legged worm. 2 Singapore fell on February 15th 1942. The poet, a RADAR officer with the RAF, had orders to disembark with 240 of his men. He sailed on the Tanjong Pinang, the last of a flotilla of 44 small vessels to leave the island, at 2200h on Friday February 13th. They called it ‘Black Friday’: 42 of the 44 small ships were sunk, mainly by enemy aircraft on their journey south towards Sumatra and Java. Most of the RAF personnel were lost. Some 38 survived. Casualty rate: 84 per cent. At the time the poet cannot have known the final fate of the Tanjong Pinang. Whilst safely arriving at Tembilihan on the Indragiri River, Sumatra, on February 15th, the small patrol boat was sent back into the fray, to be sunk at sea - with 170 women and some children, babes-in-arms and badly wounded men on-board - by a destroyer on the night of February 17th 1942.

TKD = “Life and Death in Changi” the published diary of Thomas Kitching Wang = letter dated 11.4.43 from Mr. Wang Hau-nan to the Chinese Embassy ,London explaining his experience with his wife and daughter escaping from Singapore on the “Kuala” and asking for help in finding them since they had embarked on the “TP” WNSF = World Naval Ships Forum webs

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Crew List (reconstructed): • ARCHER – Able Leading Seaman Robert W. Archer, # P/JX 125703, RN from Yarmouth was on a raft

with other crew (initially Captain Lt. Shaw, Young, Baird and Hissey) and a group of nurses. He had been wounded by shrapnel in his thigh but survived many days on a raft without food or water and reached Banka Island with some of that group. He and others hid in the jungle for five weeks but was betrayed by local people and handed over to the Japanese. He was later interned in Palembang and died there on 17.8.45 (based on Archer and Hissey testimonies). Initially buried in the Palembang Dutch War Cemetery he was reinterred in the Jakarta War Cemetery grave 4.D.1 where he lies today.

• BAIRD – Ordinary Seaman J. Baird #PJX 274435 (this apparently indicates he was a stoker and enlisted in Plymouth) was a survivor of the sinking of the “HMS Repulse “off the coast of Malaya in December 1941 and had presumably been firstly attached to the shore base in Singapore (named “HMS Sultan”) before being allocated to the “SS. Tandjong Pinang”’ prior to it leaving in the last convoy out of Singapore. After the sinking of the “TP” he was on a raft with other crew and nurses and ended up in internment in Palembang. He survived the war (A/S Robert Archer testimony given in POW camp before he died there); after the war a Graves Investigation officer found a scrap of paper beside the lighthouse at Muntok on Banka island with the address” Baird, 92 Merton Road, Newcastle” and “Hissey” and “Archer” on it – this may have come from the site where Lt. Shaw and A/B Young had been buried ( Graves Registration & Enquiries letter 22 December 1948); Mr. Baird was indeed located and interviewed in Newcastle in 1948 and the details of his experience recorded – he did indeed live at 92 Merton Road, Newcastle-on –Tyne.

• BIN RAFI – Ali Bin Rafi, Malay Seaman – he paddled to Banka Island with Captain Shaw and A/B “Geordie” Young and was told to change out of his uniform by Shaw - presumably to ensure better treatment from the Japanese. He survived and returned to service with the Navy upon repatriation in 1945 (testimony Ali bin Rafi to HQ. Allied Land Forces SEA April 1946).

• BROWN – Alexander J. Brown, Chartered Marine Engineer, Inspector of Machinery and Ex. of Engine Drivers Penang, Supt. Fire Brigade, Penang. Sub. Lt. SS. MRNVR. Wife was Mrs. N. R. Brown, as a crew member, being the ship’s Engineer; he died in the sinking of the “TP” (MVG).

• FANG – General Servant Fang Ho K., Naval Auxiliary Patrol, Missing Presumed Killed (NHN); Fang Ho Koh, General Servant, British, Naval Auxiliary Personnel, (Merchant Navy), husband of (Fang) Wee Tee, Hainan Island, China – he died on 17.2.42 in sinking of “TP” (CWGC).

• GERARD – Lt. Eric ‘Stephen’ Gerard, RNZVR and Sub. Lt MRNVR, was born on 4th November 1908 making him aged 34 years at the time of his death. He was from New Zealand and a journalist in civilian life. Stephen Gerard was the son of George and Freda Marie Gerard of Christchurch (George died on 26.8.48 and is buried in Waimariri cemetery, Burnside, Christchurch and Freda had died on 30.9.31). Stephen had attended Christ’s College in Christchurch, then Canterbury College (now Canterbury University) and at age 17 gained a place at Oxford University in England. Apparently he “ …He had a year or so at Brazenove and come down without a degree but with a Grave blazer to mark his having fought for England at an international fencing meeting at Aix …Gerard looked like a duelist, hard and raffish …” ( ‘Memoir’ by school contemporary Stuart Perry in the book “Strait of Adventure” edition publ. 1952) .In fact during his final year (1931) at Oxford Stephen received the sad news that his mother was dying and, before being able to graduate, had to leave to return to New Zealand by ship – in character with his adventurous approach to life , he found a passage on a rather rough ship and crew which he later described to his family as akin to a pirate ship. In 1930 he had become engaged to Miss Ursula Charnock – Smith in London but the engagement was broken off. The following year (1931) he joined a French fishing boat (possibly the ‘piratical ship’ he mentioned to his family) and worked on a voyage in the Bay of Biscay which he wrote about to New Zealand newspapers – this was the year his mother passed away. In 1932, after returning to New Zealand, he purchased a 66 foot (42 ton) wooden ketch named ‘Water Lily’ which had been built in 1865 for trading around New Zealand and with six other ex-pupils from

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Christ’s College he sailed it from Bluff to Lyttleton, then Wellington and on to Auckland. The objective was to sail to Tonga and then onwards to places afar (New Zealand Herald 19.4.32). The venture turned to disaster when the small ship lost its mast in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands in Pacific and sank – leaving Stephen with the clothes he was wearing and not much more. The following year he made it back to New Zealand. In 1935 he married Miss Valerie Maud Denniston (born c. 1911). In 1936 he was reported giving an exhibition of the epee at a fencing competition between “the Navy and Wellington’” in Wellington. In 1938 he wrote and published ‘Strait of Adventure’, a very well written book about the wild Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand including its waters, shores and history. Stephen was a journalist during this time for ‘The Dominion’ in Wellington - and possibly the ‘Evening Post ‘newspaper. It must have been a foregone conclusion that Stephen would join the Navy on the declaration of war – which he did on 29 April 1941 at ‘HMS Philomel’ (the New Zealand shore base)” … for service in R.N. …”, being immediately attached to the shore base in Singapore ‘HMS Sultan’. He wrote in his Registration Form For Active Service – the application for a commission in the RNVR - “… sailed yachts in all parts of the world, including Home waters. Extensive Pacific cruise 1931-33 as skipper. Can navigate. Air pilot in 1929 …”. He is recorded as a tall (five feet eleven inches) and lean (ten stone) man with brown hair and grey eyes, married with one child. Colonial Naval records show that he was commissioned as Tempy. Lt. Eric Stephen Gerard, RNZNVR on 29.7.41 making him technically equal in seniority to Lt Studholme on the ship. His service records show him being attached to ‘Pangkor’ and then, most interestingly, the ‘2nd Malay’ (which must mean the 2nd Malay Regiment which later heroically fought in the defence of Singapore island) in the months prior to the Surrender. In the records of the Changi POW camp ‘Bureau of Record and Enquiry’ whose OIC was Captain David Nelson from NZ – and in a post war statement by Captain Nelson it was confirmed that “… those records definitely show that Lieutenant Gerard was on the Tanjong Pinang when she was sunk, as he states in his letter he is of the firm opinion that neither Stephen Gerard nor Basil Shaw survived …” (solicitor’s letter to The Naval Secretary, Wellington, dated 3 April 1946. Stephen is also listed in the crew list recorded by A/S Archer in POW camp; he is shown as “Sub Lt Gerrard, RMNVR”. In ‘The Malayan Bulletin’, 22.1.45, there appeared under ‘Enquiries’ the following” … Lieut. Eric Stephen Garard [sic], R.N.V.R., - His last known address was R.N.V.R., Headquarters, Singapore. He is supposed to have left there with his ship about three years ago and nothing has been heard from him since. Various rumours have reached his wife, but nothing that could be regarded as definite information. Please pass any information on to the Officer in Charge, Missing and Prisoners of War department, Red Cross Society, Christchurch, NZ …”. One source states that he was Ex ‘HMS Pangkor ‘and appears to have survived the sinking but “… was left weak with wounds and drowned…” (NZ Military Historical Society Inc). After the war Mrs. Valerie Gerard lived at 22 Ludlam Crescent, Lower Hutt, NZ. Stephen Gerard is memorialized by the CWGC and on the Naval Memorial at the Devonport Naval Base, Auckland, New Zealand. Finally, in the view of this researcher, perhaps the best memorial to the man who was Stephen Gerard is contained in ‘The Memoir’ in his book as written by his Christ’s College contemporary Stuart Perry,” … he had packed a good deal into his life…. I fancy he did with his life more or less what he wanted to do with it. He was willful and solitary, but he had a capacity for friendship. Sometimes in funds, sometimes hard up, he was never in a minor key. There was originality in all he tackled, an almost foolhardy sense of adventure, and a rejection of conventions which was automatic rather than impatient. He simply found conventions a nuisance …”.

• GRIEVE – ‘Tom’ Thomas Bodden Grieve, Sub. Lt. MRNVR, “HMS Laburnum”, b. 1911, Tynemouth. Wearne Bros., Kuala Lumpur. Wife Gwen and son A. had been evacuated 0n “Orion” to Freemantle. “…Officially lost at sea 15.2.42 but in fact died on “TP” …” (MVG); Thomas Bodden Grieve was a Lt in the MRNVR and worked for Wearne’s Limited , Kuala Lumpur; poignantly his wife, who evacuated to Australia gave birth to a son, withing a few weeks of his death, as recorded in the West Australian” 16.3.42 “ Gwen wife of T. B. Grieve, RNVR, Singapore , a son…” ( Trove); he is memorialized on his parents gravestone at Preston Cemetery, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, England “… Thomas Bodden Grieve ,MRNVR, killed 16 February 1942 in his 32nd year, son of Thomas and

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Marion Grieve…”; after the war there was an advt giving notice of duplicate share certificates being issued in his name ( as deceased) for Malayan Collieries Ltd. ( ST 5.3.48).

• HILL – Lt. ‘E’ F. Hill, RNR, Chief Engineer on the “Tien Kwang”, was sent onto the ‘TP’ at Pom Pong island to assist in the engine room where the engineer was a man who had been his #2 on “Laburnum” in Singapore; and is recorded by Captain Briggs of the “Tien Kwang” as being from New Zealand and Japan Constructional Engineers and also having been Chief Engineer to Mollers (a shipping line) in Shanghai. (CO980/217 MRB report No 23 by Captain Briggs 12.8.42)

• HISSEY – this is – A/B Alfred George Hissey, DJX 185059, a crew member on the “SS. Tandjong

Pinang” after having previously been an Able Seaman in the crew of the “HMS. Repulse” when was sunk in December 1941 by the Japanese off the coast of Malaya and subsequently assigned to the shore base in Singapore by the name of “HMS. Sultan. After the sinking of the ‘TP” Hissey was on a raft with other crew and some nurses. Baird testimony says Hissey was from Reading and had served on “HMS. Repulse’. Wounded in the left wrist he reached Banka Island on the Carley Float with Archer, Baird and Sister Black., but was captured and interned in Palembang (Archer testimony); he died as a POW on 26.7.45 aged 27 years and is buried in Jakarta War Cemetery, (wwww.naval-history.net and CWGC); he was from Reading according to O/S James Baird who also related after the War that Hissey, Archer and Baird were hidden in a Dutch house at a place called Rambat on Banka Island for ten weeks. Hissey was still suffering from a wound on the left wrist- he appeared to have been wounded by shrapnel. On 25.4.42 they were taken by local Indonesians to the Japanese who were paying 20 dollars a head for prisoners they were taken to Muntok and later to Palembang to a POW camp. Ordinary Seaman James Baird states that “… in July 1945 both ‘Hissey’ and ‘Archer’ died in this camp from beriberi and I think Archer died from malnutrition. The burial ground in the camp was full and these two men were buried in another burial ground about ten or fifteen yards outside the wire fence of the camp…”.

• MCCUE – “Signalman McCue”, a crew member from New Zealand, had received a wound which had nearly blown his foot off and was on a raft with A/S Richardson but died after five days (A/S Richardson testimony) – SEE MCHUGH NEXT,

• MCHUGH – Signalman Daniel Brendan McHugh, Royal New Zealand Navy, Sig. #2397NZD, ex “HMS Tenedos” is listed on the NZ Navy Devonport memorial (and CWGC) as dying on 31.3.42 with no other details – on the other hand CWGC records shows that he was the only Navy Signalman who died in 1942 and was also a New Zealander, so looking at the facts it is certain that he is the same person as the ‘McCue’ mentioned (directly above) in the testimony of A/S Richardson. Information from the NZ Navy Museum, Auckland, confirms that Daniel McHugh was a Signalman rating from Auckland, NZ, and joined the NZ Division of the Royal Navy on 7 March 1941, posted to ‘HMS. Sultan’ (the Royal Navy shore base in Singapore) on 22 July 1941 and, apart from brief attachment to the crew of Royal Navy warships ‘Mauritius’ and ‘Tenedos’ was officially there until the just before Fall of Singapore when his record card shows simply the word” Run” (NZ Navy Museum) - which is an erroneous implication of desertion. However, it is more correct to record that, as a New Zealander like the three officers assembled for the “TP”, and like other sailors then at a loose end at the shore based “HMS Sultan” in Singapore, he in fact had joined or been assigned to the crew of Lt. Basil Shaw on the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ prior to 13.2.42 when it departed Singapore heading to Batavia and Daniel’s death should be more correctly recorded as on 22.2.42 based on the following firsthand accounts. In the typewritten statement by survivor Able Seaman J. Richardson (ex ‘HMS Prince of Wales’) he states that during their time drifting at sea after the sinking of the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ “Wednesday 19th February … next came my raft with the

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signalman and myself, both of us were wounded; one of the signalman’s feet was hanging off. He could not paddle. The nurses and the baby were on the other raft … the baby died on the third day … About the fifth day we could see seagulls flying around us and we smelt land [the raft with the nurses separated from Richardson’s raft at this point] … I was alone with the signalman. The signalman died that night. I was alone …”. Aligned with this account is that of Able Leading Seaman Robert W. Archer (who died in Palembang POW camp after making this record) “… At midday 18/19 we picked up the signalman, badly wounded in the foot and the stomach and about six nurses all on one raft …On the afternoon of 2oth February we decided to leave A.B. Richardsons and the signalman as stated by A.B. Richardsons…”. Archer also attached to his statement a schedule listing the ship’s company known to him which includes the record “… Sig. McCue (New Zealand) …”. Back home the ‘Auckland Star’ on 16 April 1942 was the first public record of Daniel McHugh as ‘Missing’ (Auckland Star, 16.4.42) and it recorded him as the son of “… Mrs. M. C. McHugh, Auckland (mother) …”. Later in 1942 the ‘Auckland Star ( 31.8.42) has the following item “ … Signalman Daniel Brendan McHugh, aged 19, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. McHugh, Long Drive, St Helier’s who had been reported missing. Signalman McHugh was educated at Sacred Heart College and took a keen interest in all sports whilst at school. He was employed on the clerical staff of the Auckland Hospital prior to his enlistment in the navy in March 1941. He comes from a seafaring family, as several uncles captained sailing ships, and he has many relations now serving in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy …”. A photo with the caption “… Signalman D. B. McHugh, of Auckland, reported missing on active service…” also appeared in the ‘New Zealand Herald’ newspaper on 3.9.42 and shows a young man in naval uniform looking into the camera in a positive and happy manner. Daniel Brendan McHugh was born in Dublin, Ireland on 21 April 1922 and lived with his mother - Mrs. Mary Clare McHugh - at 89 long Drive, St Heliers, Auckland, NZ at the time of his enlistment. He had attended Sacred Heart College in Auckland and, after a brief period as deckhand on ‘RMMS Aorangi’ , worked in the clerical staff of the Auckland Hospital Board. Aged 18 years, he was five feet seven in height, with blue eyes and brown hair. It is worth noting that Signalman Daniel Brendan (known as ‘DB’ to his family) McHugh had been born in Ireland to Irish parents and therefore as a ‘Neutral’ had no duty to enlist in the war, but was insistent on joining the Royal New Zealand Navy against the wishes of his mother (conversation with Jean McHugh, sister-in-law, 20 .6.17). He is recorded here as one of New Zealand’s young, brave but unsung heroes of the Second World War and to redress any previous slight on his memory because of historic RNZN records that cast doubt upon the circumstances of his departure from Singapore.

• RAFFERTY – Commissioned Gunner (ex- Repulse) Anthony Rafferty, MBE, Royal Navy aged 43 years, husband of Evelyn Rafferty of Harrow-on-the- Hill, Middlesex – he died on 17.2.42 (NHN and CWGC); Gunner Rafferty was either wounded in the bombing of the Kuala” and Pom Pong island and died on the Island two days after the sinking or joined the “SS. Tanjong Pinang” as a ‘wounded ‘ or crew ( many of the crew were from the “HMS. Repulse”) and died in the sinking of that ship on 17 2.42.; he is remembered on the Plymouth Memorial.

• RICHARDSON – Able Seaman J. Richardson, a crew member who was at the helm when the Japanese attacked, was ex “HMS. Prince of Wales” and ended up on a raft with other crew and two nurses. They were later separated from the nurses (possibly Turner and Cooper).He was on the raft for eight days; his last companion was ‘Signalman McCue’ (actually Signalman Daniel Brendan McHugh) who died of wounds after five days. Richardson was picked up by a Japanese cruiser and was interned in Palembang and survived the war (Richardson testimony) . Able Seaman Richardson left a detailed three page statement of the sinking and aftermath of the sinking which is a most valuable record of this tragic event.

• SANDERSON – Able Seaman Sanderson, a ‘Scotch’ crew member apparently from ‘Portsmouth’ according to records made by surviving crew after the War, - it is not clear whether he survived the sinking or was lost in the sinking of the “TP” (A/S Archer and A/S Richardson testimony crew schedule); however it appears that this is almost certainly Able Seaman John Devine Luke Sanderson, D/SSX 15376, “HMS Sultan” [the Singapore shore base], Royal Navy, who died officially on 16.2.42 and is remembered on the Plymouth memorial (CWGC); in fact A/S Sanderson was a

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member of the crew of HMS. Repulse” which had been sunk by the Japanese, many of the survivors of that sinking were attached to “HMS Sultan” and then during the last few days prior to the Fall of Singapore were seconded to merchant ships taking the last evacuees out of Singapore.

• SEARS – a stoker or “fireman” according to survivor Dr. Marjorie Lyons who records, that during the bombing of the “Kuala”, he courageously helped Lyons and a nursing Sister with carrying a wounded person who had a compound fracture of the femur “…Sears, a fireman, was with me, then as the ship was hit and caught fire “…Sears hurried us off…”the ship. She later records moving people around the Island over the following few days “…again with Sears help…” (IWML); this raises a question as to when he must have later lost his life because CWGC records show “ Chief Stoker Herbert Raymond Sears, RN., aged 42 years, #P/K 60309, attached “HMS Sultan”, son of George and Emily Sears he died on 16.2.42 (CWGC); this date may have been nominated as being the last recorded sighting of Chief Stoker Sears leaving open the question of whether he died after leaving Pom Pong Island on one of the later rescue vessels ( including the coincidental date of the sinking of the “TP” ); this could be the unidentified “Stoker’ recorded by the crew and who they would not have known unless he was from the “HMS Repulse” or “HMS Prince of Wales” crews

• SHAW- Lt. Basil, RNZNVR, was born in Saltburn (also known as Saltburn - by - Sea and south east of

Stockton - on - Tees, County Durham), England on 1 July 1905. After leaving school at fourteen years of age he spent three years, during January 1919 until December 1921, as a merchant marine cadet on ‘HMS Conway’ - an ancient wooden ship moored at Rockferry which functioned as the Merchant Navy School ship. He then served six months on ‘HMS Orion’ a Royal Navy World War One ‘dreadnought’ class battleship that by 1921 was being used simply as a gunnery training ship and then ‘HMS Wild Swan’, a 1918 destroyer which during those years was operating in the Mediterranean during the Greek- Turkish war. This experience earned him the rank of Midshipman in the RNR. It then appears that in about 1922/23 he joined the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (which became the largest shipping group in the world by 1927 before collapsing in 1932) which took him back into the Merchant Marine as an Apprentice. Before leaving the Merchant Marine he had obtained his Second Mate Certificate. By 1926 he had moved to New Zealand to take up sheep farming - he was initially based on Bexley Station at Awakino in the North Island and it is noteworthy that in a letter he wrote in September that year to the NZ authorities he advised them of his desire to join the RNVR in New Zealand. Also of the fact that, following his attaining the age of 21 years he had been made an Acting Sub Lieutenant, RNR in Britain. Because the RNVR in New Zealand only operated in Auckland he was unable to achieve his clear ambition to become an officer in the RNVR and had to put that aside for some years. Soon after he moved to the South Island where, by 1930, he was farming at ‘Albury Park’ Station at Albury (in the Mackenzie Country which is inland from Timaru) and winning prizes in Collie sheepdog competitions (‘The Press’ 31.10.30). He soon had become part of the established farming gentry being invited to be Best Man at several weddings for members of prominent farming families in the area (‘Evening Post’ 21.8.31 and ‘Temuka Leader’ 23.1.32) and in that year married Miss Amy Allison Ferrers Good, the daughter of a prominent Taranaki family. In 1933 he displayed his patriotism by providing a site for military training for the Canterbury Mounted Rifles at Albury Station (‘The Press’ 25.8.33). Mr. and Mrs. Shaw became a well established part of the higher level of rural society in the South Island. He must have been successful in his farming for he is recorded travelling back to the UK and visiting the New Zealand High Commissioner in 1933 and then in 1934 travelling by ship to Sydney. In 1938 the family moved to a farm at Cape Kidnappers in the Hawkes Bay. As soon as the second World war broke out in September 1939 Basil Shaw immediately completed his ‘Registration For Active Service’. In early 1940, with Britain at war and New Zealand fully supporting the war effort the New Zealand government announced a Naval draft that would include “… 250 officers and men of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 50 technical ratings specially entered for the Royal Navy, 80 Imperial ratings who have been replaced in the New Zealand naval forces by reserves, new entries and junior Royal Naval volunteer reserve ratings … In addition, the following 10 yachtsmen had

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been selected for commissions as sub-lieutenants in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve for service overseas …. [including] Basil Shaw (Napier) …” (‘The Press’ 22.4.40). Basil Shaw duly applied – as a “… Yachtsman Candidate For War Service In The Royal Navy (R.N.V.R.), applicable also to ex-mercantile marine officers …” and, no doubt under the latter category since he had never been a yachtsman, was promptly appointed a Probationary Temporary Sub Lieutenant, R.N.V.R. That same month the ’10 yachtsmen’ were on the ‘SS Niagara’ to Sydney and then the ‘SS Morella’ from Sydney to Singapore to take up their new duties in Malaya – half were to lose their lives during the War. New Zealand Navy records show him initially being attached to the Singapore shore base ‘HMS Sultan’ and then during 1940 on the ‘Insect class’ Yangste river gunboat ‘HMS Scarab’ which had been withdrawn that year from Hong Kong to Singapore. In 1941, he was again attached to ‘HMS Laburnum’ which was part of the naval shore base and then in January 1941 on to the ‘Fuh Wo’ before, at the last minute it appears during the Japanese invasion, he was placed in command of the “SS. Tandjong Pinang”. He had seniority of commissioning as a Lieutenant over the other two New Zealand officers, Gerard and Studholme, also on board (he was commissioned on 1.12.40 some seven months ahead of the other two plus he had formal training as an officer in the merchant marine and some small experience as a teenager in the Royal Navy. It seems that all the officers on the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ might have been pulled together at the last minute since both Gerard and Studholme are officially recorded as being on other ships when in fact they were on the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ at the time of departure from Singapore. Basil Shaw’s formal training was a positive aspect in his background in this situation and it seems likely that he would have taken on the duty as Captain with relish given his evident desire in the years before the War to become an Officer. We are left with the question as to whether he saw his role in command of the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ as a Royal Navy or mercantile marine responsibility. He survived the sinking, during which he bravely helped women and children off the ship and into the sea; and he was then on one of the tiny rafts with other crew and nurses. After a few days the overturned pram dinghy from the ship drifted by and Basil Shaw plus A/S Young plus a Malay seaman by the name of Ali Bin Rafi used this tiny craft to go for help. These three were seen on Banka Island about two days later by Lt. E. Leg. Partridge, MRNVR, from the ‘Fuh Wo’ (who presumably knew Basil Shaw from the brief time he also served on the ‘Fuh Wo’) who says he met Basil Shaw and two ratings “… one British and one Malaya …” on the 29th [typo in original record – it would have been the 20th] in the vicinity of the ‘UBAR ‘lighthouse [this actually appears to be the metal frame lighthouse at Tanjong Ular which is north along the coast from the stone construction Tanjung Kelian or Muntok light] and reported that Basil Shaw was in a weak state,” … I took this party back to the hut [at a tin mine called ‘Parit 9’] and did all I could for them, as they were suffering from exposure, having been some 36 hours without either food or water…. prior to this decision [ to leave ‘Parit 9’ on the evening of the 21st February] a party of Chinese bandits entered their hut and robbed them of money and valuables, during this operation Lieutenant SHAW was beaten up by the Chinese, but not badly. All inmates of the hut, including Lieutenant Shaw, 2 Naval ratings and 3 R.A.F. personnel were either sick or wounded …”. In fact after Basil Shaw and A/S Young had spent a night at either this hut at ‘Parit 9’ tin mine or the lighthouse [ there slightly conflicting records] are they departed the following day for Muntok [leaving Ali Bin Rafi at the lighthouse and suggesting he change his clothing] but on the way, it was now 21st February 1942 , they were captured by the Japanese and summarily shot “…at some distance away from the location where the Australian Sisters were massacred …”or “….three miles away from the lighthouse …” (Graves Registration & Enquiries, Far Eastern Land Forces, Singapore letter dated 22.12.48, and also testimonies of Sub. Lt. Partridge, MRNVR, of “HMS “Fu Wo”, the Malay Rating named Ali Bin Rafi and NZ Military Historical Society Inc); Ali Bin Rafi was told the next morning by a local Javanese who came to the lighthouse that “… on the previous morning the Japanese had captured and shot two British sailors about three miles away in the direction of Muntok …Bin Rafi immediately visited the spot and saw a Japanese sentry guarding the bodies of the two British sailors. He did not see the faces but recognized the shoulder badges of rank, clothes and stature of Lieutenant Shaw. When he returned to the spot the next day the bodies had been removed…” (Letter from Naval Secretary to Mrs. A.F. Shaw 22.8.46). From photos and Royal New Zealand records we know Lt. Basil Shaw was a big man – standing six feet one inch and weighing

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thirteen stone six pounds - which explains the reference to ‘stature’. A/S Richardson presumed them to either have been killed by the Japanese or died from wounds and sickness (A/S Richardson testimony). Post war search efforts in 1948 resulted in the remains of Lt. Shaw and A/S Young - together with the remnants of a scrap of paper with the name of crew members Baird, Hissey and Archer of the ‘SS Tanjong Pinang’ on it- being disinterred from their informal grave near Muntok lighthouse ( Graves Registration & Enquiries , Far East Land Forces 22.12.48), but unfortunately the Graves Party could not distinguish between the remains of the two men and as a result their bodies are now resting in one grave at Kranji Cemetery ( Plot 32, Row E, Grave 20) in Singapore with the inscription of them as an ‘Unknown Allied Seaman’. Correspondence between the Graves Registration unit of Far East Land Forces and the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1949 explains that “… after thorough investigations, it would appear that a case would have existed for the marking of [the Kranji] grave as that of ‘Lt B. Shaw RNZNVR and Unknown British seaman’ but for the fact that was not possible to determine the number of persons from the remains… ” so the Kranji grave was simply marked as ‘Unknown Allied Seaman’. Mrs. Shaw received correspondence from comrades of Basil Shaw - plus official explanations - which described much of the story of her husband’s bravery in the line of duty and his ultimate death on Banka Island at the hands of a company of Japanese troops from the 229th Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army who had a terrible track record of war crimes in both Hong Kong during Xmas 1941 and then on Banka Island. Basil Shaw is memorialized on the Naval Memorial at Devonport Naval Base, Auckland.

• STUDHOLME – Lt. Geoffrey Studholme, RNZVNR, was born on 3rd September 1908, he was aged 34 years at the time of his death and had been a clerk in civilian life. He was the son of Harold and

Charlotte Elizabeth (nee McCulloch) Studholme of Canterbury, New Zealand and was born whilst his parents were farmers in Southland, whilst at ‘Glequioch’ station near Athol. The Studholme family were early ‘gentry’ in the South Island of New Zealand, one of the best known pioneer

families of Canterbury and substantial holders of rural land and farms, with a high social profile in the late 1800s and through to the Second World War. His father suffered bankruptcy in 1922 during the collapse of meat and wool prices but the family bounced back. The first record of

Geoffrey is as a teenager appearing before the courts in 1929 in Christchurch and being fined two pounds for “…driving a car at a speed dangerous to the public …” (‘The Press’, 22.6.29) - which must have been a trait in the family because his father was fined in 1920 for “… driving at more

than 12 mph …” in Christchurch (‘Sun’ 16.1.20). He next appeared in electorate records in 1931 in New Zealand which show him as a salesman of 18 Edinburgh Street, Riccarton , Christchurch living with a Charlotte Elizabeth Studholme [ Researcher note : his mother?]. In 1933 he appears on the list for a NZRNVR dance so perhaps he had already shown an interest in the navy by the time he

was in his early twenties – there is a suggestion in his wedding report that he may also have been involved in alpine sports. In 1937 he married Miss Lesley Gwendoline Hurlston Payton, only

daughter of Mr. Edward William and Mrs. Mary Gwendolyn Payton of Masterton, NZ, and they took up residence at Lismore Flats, Fendalton, and Christchurch. They later appear frequently in the social pages of local Christchurch papers and in reports of the major social events surrounding

horse racing (‘The Press’ issues during 1940). Geoffrey enlisted in the New Zealand Naval forces (with a Yachtmaster’s Certificate # 92 so must have been an experienced recreational sailor) on 29th

April 1941 as a Tempy. Lt and was attached to ‘HMS Sultan’, the shore base in Singapore during January 1942 – he appears to have been on the crew of ‘Soegi’ until joining the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang ‘just before the fall of Singapore. The record left by A/S Richardson explains that the first shell fired

by the Japanese warship struck both the small ship’s boat being lowered full of women and children on the starboard side of the ship and also the ship’s hull “… the First Lt. was killed by this round which also set the ship on fire …”. Naval Records of Commissioned. Officers show Temp. Lt Geoffrey Studholme, RNZNVR, was commissioned on 29.7.41 making him technically exactly the same seniority as Lt Gerard from New Zealand who was also on board the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang’ as an officer – so we must assume that they somehow determined Lt Studholme to be “… First Lt….” as described by Richardson. CWGC records and other official records show him as a on board the tug “ HMS Ping Wo” in Singapore in 1941/42, but by the time of the evacuation of Singapore he had become an officer on the ‘SS Tandjong Pinang” and during the attack by was killed on the

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bridge by the first round from the Japanese submarine (according to crew testimony), which is unusual since no Japanese submarines are known to have been in the area at the time, but this reference to a submarine is confirmed by A/S Archer and interestingly Mrs. Molly Watts- Carter

states in her testimony that whilst floating in the sea the day after the sinking “ … During the afternoon we sighted and hailed a submarine which ignored us and quietly disappeared …”.. Geoffrey Studholme is elsewhere recorded as “…killed on board...” on 17.2.42 (NZ Military

Historical Society Inc); after the war Mrs. Lesley Studholme had the address of 109 Cole street, Masterton, NZ. She remarried and her surname became Hume – three decades later Lesley

Gwendolyn Hurlston Hume, upon her death on 10.8.75 at the age of 67 years, was buried next to her parents in Archer Street Cemetery, QE Park,

Masterton. There appear to have been no children from the marriage. A formal photo of Lieutenant G. Studholme in his full ‘whites’ naval uniform appeared in the ‘Auckland weekly News’

of 13 May 1942 with the caption “…of Masterton, missing on active service…”. • TERRY – “…Cmdr. Terry, RNR, skipper of the “TP”…” (Ruperti); which is incorrect because Lt. Shaw

was the Captain of the “TP” and also at variance with official records on Lt. Cdr. Terry, but is interesting because it is possible that Lt. Cdr. Terry is the unidentified “Lt. E” who was also stated to be on the “TP” in a crew members testimony; officially the records at the CWGC show “Lt. Comdr. Antony Hunter Terry, DSC., RN., “HMS. Sultan” died 28.2.42 (Plymouth Naval Column); actually Lt. Cdr. Terry was an officer on the “HMS. Prince of Wales “when it was in the earlier battle in Europe which saw the “HMS. Hood” sunk, it is presumed that he was also on the “Prince of Wales “when it was sunk off the coast of Malaya and then was attached to “HMS. Sultan: .The date of his death could be anything but it does coincide with the torpedoing with no survivors of the “SS. Ban Ho Guan” on 28.2.42 after it left Padang with, amongst others, a group of RN. and MRNVR officers. Other sources point to Commander Terry leaving Pom Pong island with a group of seamen from the ‘Kung Wo’ which had been sunk near Pom Pong; it is possible that he boarded the ‘Tandjong Pinang’ but most information point to him reaching Padang and boarding the ill-fated ‘SS Ban Ho Guan’.

• WANG – Wang Yang C. , cook, Naval Auxiliary Patrol, missing presumed killed ( NHN); Wang Yang Chee, Cook, Naval Auxiliary Personnel ( Merchant Navy), husband of (Wang) Chee Tew of Hainan Island, China – he died on 17.2.42 in the sinking of the “TP” ( CWGC).

• YOUNG – Able Seaman Young ( a Malay rating on the “TP”, Seaman Ali Bin Rafi, said there was an A/B called “Geordie” on the ship), was a crew member (apparently from Haltwhistle, Northumberland according to a survivor) who ended up after the sinking on a raft with other crew and some nurses , but after the ships’ pram dinghy drifted past ‘up turned’ he and Captain, Lt. Basil Shaw, and a Malay seaman righted the little craft and paddled off to find help and reached land near the lighthouse at Banka island of the coast of Sumatra ( testimony of A/B Archer) .His fate is not directly recorded in any documents , but by deduction using the statements of other crew members he almost certainly was the same ‘ European’ Able Seaman who landed with and was executed with Captain Basil Shaw (see entry for SHAW) by the Japanese on 21.2.42 as they walked towards Muntok from the lighthouse near where they came ashore ( Archer and Baird testimony); it is important at this stage to note there is a death officially recorded of an Oswald Littlewood Young, D/SSX 32924, who had been on the “HMS. Repulse” (as had Able Seaman Hissey and Able Seaman Baird of the “TP”) and whose date of death is 16.2.42, and whose parents were living in Willington, Co. Durham (CWGC), this is broadly the same region of the UK as the town of Haltwhistle mentioned above, he was a Petty Officer aged 22 years of age who was classified as “Missing Presumed Killed” – research is being carried out to confirm this explanation for A/B Oswald Young’s death which the authorities do not appear to have discovered amongst the crew testimonies. This means that the remains of Oswald Littlewood Young must lay in the same grave at Kranji Military Cemetery, Singapore – specifically grave number 20, Row E, plot 32.

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Reconstructed passenger List: • ALLAN - Janet Elizabeth ALLAN, MAS. B.1898 (Australia) died on “TP” (C85) and (CWGC), wife of Dr.

Harry Allan, MAS, Penang (MVG); also Mrs. Elizabeth Allen, MAS, G.G.,1st Aid Post, was seen on the “Kuala” (CAS); Miss Allan, MAS, Singapore – listed as on “TP’ (JPB); and again almost certainly the same person as ALLEN – Sister Allen, was with a group of Sisters including Marjorie de Malmanche on the beach at Pom Pong island the day after the sinking when they went for a swim (IWMDM; STF); Miss Allen S.J.B. (CAS); and also, ALLEN – Mrs. Husband Private Practitioner in Penang – listed as on “TP”. (JPB) which seems to be a duplicate of the ostensibly Japanese record of Miss Allan, MAS, Singapore above; also Mrs. Allan, wife of Dr. Allan of Penang transshipped to “TP”(PODC); also Miss E. Allen, Singapore ,left on “TP” (Ruperti).

• BALL – Mrs. Dorothy Ball, VAD on duty at an emergency hospital in Singapore. Known to have been on SS Kuala which was bombed and sunk…possibly lost in this bombing, but nothing definitely known (letter from her sister Mrs. L. S. Davis, Auckland, NZ to the NZ missing and POW agency Nov. 1947) from this letter it was learned that Mrs. Ball was also the sister of Mrs. Lucy Penseler who also lost her life in the sinking of the “TP”; Mrs. D. Ball, VAD, Singapore boarded “TP” (ALFSEA); also Dorothy Ball was originally from New Zealand and the sister-in-law of Mrs. Thea McIntyre - see below ( source Jamie Norriss and Bev Norriss , the latter is the granddaughter of Thea McIntyre’s husband Hugh McIntyre) Nurse Dorothy Kirker Ball, aged 36 years, Chatsworth Military Hospital, Singapore. Of Bukit Koman, Selangor, FMS., Wife of Frank Ball – died on 17.2.42 on “TP” ( C255) and (CWGC) and also, in view of the wording of the following, her husband was possibly on the “Kuala” as well ,

• BARNES – Mrs. Barnes listed as on “TP” (JPB); also on ALFSEA list as being on the ‘TP’; but no other record of her death; could be Mrs. Barnett below?

• BARNETT – Mrs. Barnett, later boarded “TP” and, when it sank, survived for several days on a raft but sadly drowned after leaving life raft to swim to nearby islands ( Matron Brebner statement); wife of Barnett, Agricultural Dept. – listed as on “TP” ( JB); Mrs. Barnett boarded “TP” (ALFSEA); Mrs. Jean Patricia Barnett (British) ,b.1915 died on “TP” ( C281) and aged 27 years, wife of Mr. H. L. Barnett, Kuala Lumpur(CWGC); Mr. H. L. Barnett , b.1901, Government Officer, was interned in Changi (C280)

• BEAUCHAMP- NOBBS – one record is “...E. Beauchamp-Nobbs boarded “TP” (ALFSEA); Alice Eileen Beauchamp Nobbs , British, daughter of Michael Egan, Pyrford, Surrey – died around sinking of “Kuala” (CWGC); she was the widow of Major Eric Herwald Beauchamp-Nobbs, FMS Volunteer, Manager of West Country Estate, Kajang who died on 6.6.41 (Straits Times); the fact that Alice Beauchamp - Nobbs was lost at sea has been confirmed by family (JM)

• BLACK – Nurse” … (Miss) C. F. Black, QAIMNSR [sic] …” (Inglis list at PRO) – survived sinking of “TP” and was on a raft with six other Nursing sisters and three seamen from the “TP”, she was the only nurse in this group to survive the five days on the raft without food or water and she landed with

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Seamen Baird, Hissey and Archer” … on a beach at the south end of Banka Island at about 1800 on 22.2.42. They were robbed that night of all their money and possessions except clothes, by a party of about 20 Malays armed with poles and knives. We could get no help for the nurse, Miss Black, from Alexandra Hospital. Her leg was badly poisoned. She died on the night of 23/24 February. She had been engaged to a RAF officer. We buried her body on the beach about five miles to the north east of the village of Rambut. We lived in or near Rambut village for about seven weeks and were captured on 25th April…” (Narrative by Seaman Robert W. Archer); that she died of wounds to her leg on 24 .2.42 on a beach on Banka Island and was buried there is confirmed in the post war testimony of Able Seaman. J Baird; Sister Charlotte Florence Black, QAIMNS, 20th C. General Hospital, aged 26 years, #206670, daughter of Robert and Charlotte Black, died 24.2.42 (CWGC); Sister Charlotte Black was Irish ( “The Emperor’s Irish Slaves” book).

• BREBNER – Matron. Singapore (STF); also Miss Brebner seen on Pom Pong island (CAS); on Pom Pong island Marjorie de Malmanche records “just then I saw Miss Brebner, Matron - Singapore…with her handbag under her arm, struggling down the hillside. She said how happy she was to see us alive. She was heartbroken about all her nurses and Sisters killed and injured. She herself was killed two days later…”also recorded that “…she boarded “TP” ( IWMDM); listed as on “TP” (JPB); Matron Margaret Brebner, General Hospital, Singapore, age 57,daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Brebner, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire - died on “TP” (CWGC); Miss Brebner had been nursing in Kelantan in 1928, by 1934 was Matron of the women’s hospital at Kota Bahru, and became matron of Singapore General Hospital in 1939 ( Straits Times); there is another record with a different story on the death of Matron Brebner which is in CO 980/217which is a report by Lt. F. T. Goodwin to the Malayan Research Bureau, Sydney in 1943 where he states ”… Sister Jones also on the “Katoomba’ told Goodwin that she was on the “Kuala”. She says that Matron Brebner was hiding under a rock on Pom Pong Island with other nurses when the rock collapsed and killed Brebner and a lot of others…”.

• BRETT – “…Mrs. Brett left on the “TP” with Miss I. Brett, Miss E. Brett and Miss S. Brett…” (Ruperti); Mrs. Dorothy Victoria Brett (British). B.1897.Aged 45 years, wife of Harry Cyril Brett, 3 Namly Ave., Bukit Timah Road, Singapore - died on “TP” (C544) and (CWGC) ; the Brett family were friends with the Hartleys ( the boys having attended boarding school together and then offered the Hartleys accommodation when they arrived in Singapore) and it appears there were four or five children in this family on the “Kuala”; Mrs. Brett , Joan and Eleanore must all have landed on the “beach camp” side of the Island since they were never seen on Pom Pong island by Kenneth Hartley before they must have boarded the “TP” ( who was a friend of the Brett children) also ALFSEA records a D. Brett as having been on the “TP” but recovered Sumatra but this must be an error with Sylvia Brett recorded below

• BRETT – Eleanore Barbara Delicia Brett (British). Aged 4 years, daughter of above. B. 1938. Died on “TP” ( C545) and (CWGC); also on ALFSEA list for “TP”;

• BRETT – Joan Helen Lilian Brett. Aged 15 years, British. B.1927. Daughter of above. Died on “TP” (C546) and (CWGC); the ALFSEA list records an I. Brett as on the “TP”.

• BRETT – a Miss Brett was seen on the “Kuala” (CAS); a Miss S. Brett is recorded with the above as having been on the “TP” (list of civilians on “Kuala “and “TP “at PRO); ALFSEA list records an S. Brett as being on the “TP” but having been recovered Sumatra ; more definitively a Miss Sylvia Brett, aged 16 years in June 1943, and with the address of 3 Namley Avenue, Bukit Timah, Singapore , described as “Indo-Eng”, is listed as being interned in the British Women’s camp at Padang ; Dr. Chen Su Lan in his book said that at Pulau Temiang, other people were rescued by villagers and brought to the island including “ Mrs. J” [ this appears to be Mrs. Jones who was the aunt of the Hartley children who were friends with the Brett children] and a 13 to 14 year old girl ‘companion’ . Mrs. J. did not behave as though she was related to the girl and apparently left the girl on an island when Mrs. J was rescued [it is possible that this was Sylvia Brett since when they arrived at Senejang Dr. Chen Su Lan met the younger brother of the 13 to 14 year old girl who was most likely – from deduction – the Master M. C. Brett listed below ] (CSL); Kenneth Hartley has recorded that Sylvia Brett, daughter of Mrs. Brett above, survived Muntok prison and returned to live in Singapore – so this is the oldest child